


The Last Leg Home

by threequarters



Category: due South
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-25
Updated: 2010-08-25
Packaged: 2017-10-11 06:12:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/109272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/threequarters/pseuds/threequarters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ray does not travel well. At all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Leg Home

**Author's Note:**

> Written in 2006 for Ekaterinn as her due South seekrit santa gift. Contains a blink and you'll miss it reference to SGA, but your enjoyment and understanding of the story will not be diminished in the slightest if you have no knowledge of that fandom.

_thunk_

Ray hated flying. He really truly hated flying. Planes ranked right up on his list with boats. Except boats were maybe better than planes now that he knew how to bloom and close. 

Sinking ships? Been there, done that. Water he could float in, no problem. If something were to go wrong on the stupid plane, he'd drop like a rock. 

And sure, he'd jumped (okay, was _pushed_ by a crazy mountie) out of a plane before, but it had been nowhere near as high off the ground as the hunk of metal he was now riding in.

Besides, they were way past fields of bottomless snow. No, this was the second leg of his journey and as far as he could remember there was nothing even remotely as friendly as snowfields between Vancouver and Denver.

_thunk thunk thunk_

It was more than the plane though. It was the people. Which drove him batshit because he'd grown up in _Chicago_ for christssake. He'd lived most of his life in one of the most populated cities in America. 

Of course then he moved to one of the least populated places in the world. But still, he hated to think he'd turned into some cliché. Grizzled guy come down from the far north only to be bothered by all the noise and people.

But god help him, it wasn't far from the truth

_Thunk! Thunkthunk thunk_

He took a deep breath and tried to focus on the book Fraser had given him before he'd gotten on the plane. Turned out to be pretty good. It was about two crazy guys dog sledding across Greenland and all the shitty things that happened to them. And how they'd kept each other sane through it all.

That, he got.

_THUNK!_

He turned around and glared at the kid kicking his seat, who – thank god – finally decided his Gameboy was far more interesting than harassing the crazy man in front of him.

And how he'd managed to survive some crazy-assed quest for some guy's hand only to be killed by holiday travel was anyone's guess.

He dog-eared the book (mainly cause he knew it'd piss Fraser off) and stuck it back under the seat. Now that the Pele-wannabe behind him had decided to quit practicing his moves Ray actually had a chance of catching some sleep.

"They're not going to serve us food? I can't believe they aren't going to feed us. I'm supposed to last three hours on pretzels and ginger ale?"

No sooner had he closed his eyes then the guy in front of him, who had up until a few minutes ago been snoring quietly, started talking. Which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been too bad, but the guy was shaping up to be almost as obnoxious as Dewey.

"Most people might not care, but I actually like airline food – military rations too, actually – not to mention I'm hypoglycemic..."

No. Strike that. More obnoxious than Dewey. Much more obnoxious. Because where Dewey was dumb with a dopey voice this guy was whiny with the most grating voice Ray had ever heard.

But Fraser was always telling him not to focus so heavily on the negative. To try and see a little bit of good in everyone.

At least Obnoxious Guy didn't smell like Dewey.

"Then again, none of this would be a problem if I were in first class like I'm _supposed_ to be. Never let the American government make your reservations for you."

Then again, if the guy smelled, Ray could just breathe through his mouth.

Although Ray was certain his trauma was nothing compared to the poor woman sitting next to Obnoxious Guy. She was huddled back against the far arm of her chair, trying to stay out of his way while he gestured emphatically with every couple of words coming rapid-fire from his mouth.

"It's just I'm a very important person and it's in everyone's best interest that I'm kept comfortable. Not that I am really at liberty to tell you why I'm so important, well besides the fact that I'm one of the smartest guys on the planet, but trust me, if you knew you would be thanking me."

That was it. It wasn't like he was actually going to be able to sleep anyway. Four cups of coffee (not counting the two before leaving the house), turbulence, and Obnoxious Guy were making sure of that.

He dug around under his seat for a few minutes before he pulled out his portable CD player. Ray put the headphones on and closed his eyes. The Clash could make just about any situation bearable.

_thunk_

thunk thunk

THUNK!!

Thank god he didn't carry a gun anymore.

  
*

The airport was crowded with mobs of people all trying to get home for American Thanksgiving and the customs line was ridiculous.

Ray couldn't put his finger on when he'd stopped calling the Canadian equivalent "Fake Thanksgiving" (something he originally took up mostly to get a rise out of Fraser), much less when it had become_his_ Thanksgiving, but it somewhere along the line it had.

And who was he to argue about eating turkey twice a year? Well, he and Fraser never really had turkey...but still.

Except this year they were taking extra time at Christmas to visit the Vecchios, so Fraser had to miss out on the Kowalski Thanksgiving. Which upset Ray's mom a great deal cause she'd have to do all the cooking by herself this year. Lord knows she'd never let any of the Kowalski men in the kitchen. Nope, only Fraser was good enough to even be allowed anywhere near the food before dinner time. It had become some weird yearly bonding ritual that Ray didn't even pretend to understand.

Then again, he was pretty thankful his mom _wanted_ to bond with Fraser. Hell, he was thankful his parents still wanted to talk to him after the whole "I'm Moving To Canada With My _Boyfriend_" conversation a few years back.

The customs line was only inching along. Obnoxious Guy was a few people in front of him, blessedly silent but obviously impatient. He kept shifting his weight from foot to foot and craning his neck trying to see past the customs counter as if he were looking for someone.

Obnoxious Guy's traumatized seat partner had ended up way at the back of the line and Ray couldn't say he blamed her. A little longer wait was probably worth it to her.

Unfortunately, the kid with the future in major league soccer was right behind Ray again. Only without a seat to kick he'd somehow figured out how to play his Gameboy _and_ repeatedly kick the backpack dangling from his arm. One glance at the kid's mom made Ray chuckled a little to himself.

And to think Fraser was still worried about Ray wanting kids.

He _finally_ got through customs, even after Obnoxious Guy caused a bit of a scene (and his passport had been _Canadian_ too, which surprised Ray cause while not all Canadians were as polite as Fraser, he'd never seen any be quite that outwardly rude).

But he got through eventually, found a Starbucks (thank god), and staked out a seat to wait for his next flight. He leaned back and let the people poured past him, all in a hurry, all looking frazzled. 

The seat kicker and his mom were met by an elderly couple. The kid gave up his Gameboy in favor of talking a mile a minute at his grandfather, and his mom's smile seemed genuine and relaxed, making her looks years younger. 

Obnoxious Guy had been met by another man (whose hair was even more experimental than Ray's). The guy was now stuck carrying two very heavy looking bags while Obnoxious Guy guzzled coffee and inhaled a muffin. But Experimental Hair Dude didn't seem to care much cause he was grinning like an idiot at his companion.

Ray got that too.

He checked his watch and fished his cell phone out of his bag. It only rang twice before the other line picked up.

He cut Fraser off before he had a chance to go into his overly-formal greeting. "Hey Frase, it's me."

"Ray? You're not in Arizona already, are you?"

"No, I'm just killing time in Denver," Ray replied, savoring a sip of his coffee. Starbucks wasn't anywhere near as great as the stuff he used to get down the street from the 2-7, but it beat the hell out of what they could get up north.

"Ah. I trust your trip so far has been well?" Fraser knew him and knew how he traveled. It was Fraser's subtle way of asking _you haven't been arrested for mass murder yet, have you?_

"Yeah Ben, it's been pretty good actually," Ray said as he watched Gameboy kid swinging from his grandfather's arm. Obnoxious Guy and Experimental Hair Dude were way down the concourse now, but Ray could see them brushing shoulders and laughing.

Fraser paused for a fraction of a second. Ray knew it wasn't the answer Ben had been expecting. This was a routine they'd gone through a bunch of times before. Here, Ray was supposed to bitch about his tip so far and Ben was supposed to lecture him about drinking so much coffee and smoking in the airport restrooms.

"Is everything alright Ray?" And he'd gone and changed the routine. Except maybe it wasn't the routine that changed so much as Ray. Cause yeah, airplanes made him nervous, the weather had sucked, and the people had been annoying.

But he was going to see his parents and his brother's family. He'd be back north in a few more days and several weeks after that he and Ben would be off to see the whole Chicago crew.

And yeah, maybe he was starting to sound like every cheesy holiday movie ever, but it _was_ only once a year. For all the hassle, he'd have a great time like always. Then he could spend the next eleven months alternating between freezing his nuts off and having great sex with Fraser.

For now though, he was going to meet his family and enjoy himself, even if one key component was missing.

"Yeah Ben, I'm good. I just, you know..."

Fraser chuckled, soft and low, "I miss you too Ray."

And Ray grinned, cause yeah, life was good. Greatness, even.

"I gotta go Ben, my flight's lining up. I'll give you a call when I get in."

"Alright Ray, have a good trip."

He turned off his phone, shoved it back into his bag, and began searching for his ticket.

As he boarded the plane he noticed the undercurrent of excitement and anticipation underneath the weariness of his fellow travelers.

And yeah, he got that too.


End file.
